The Secret to Creating the Word of Mouth Buzz

Think about some of the things that you tell your friends and family. When you are sitting around the dinner table, or the camp fire or on a couch while getting ready to watch a movie what do you talk about? You talk about what you did that day. What specifically do you talk about? Interesting things that happened in your day. Things that were out of the normal, and beyond your expectations.

Expect Much?

When you are attempting to create word of mouth marketing for your business you need to ask yourself, “What does my customer expect when they purchase my product?” If you have a brick and mortar business your customer expects, subconsciously, to walk down the aisle find what he or she wants and then go to the cash register to be greeted by the half energetic employee and then walk out with the bag in his or her hand. Pretty normal right? Nothing worth mentioning if you are telling the story to your friends…unless something unusual, something outside the ordinary happened.

Create the Customer Buzz

This is where your opportunity to get the most effective, least expensive marketing available on the planet…word of mouth marketing. Create situations that are outside the expectation of the customer and give them an experience to talk about. Here are 3 random ideas on how to create word of mouth marketing and customer buzz:

1. Scavenger Hunt – Put on a Scavenger Hunt for all of your customers and if they find everything on the list then they will get something for free. This will give you the opportunity to lead your customers all over the store and they might just find something else that they “need” while they were hunting.
2. Coupon Spies – Have your employees tell your customers, secretively of course, about upcoming sales or have them give your customers coupons in a furtive manner. Have them say, “I am really not supposed to give these to you but…” Everyone loves a good secret, especially when they are the benefactor.
3. Free Food – Don’t act like you do not love free food. Fire up a popcorn machine and pass them out to your customers and when you are asked why you are giving away free popcorn tell them that you are celebrating the fact that they choose to shop at your business. Then offer them a sincere thank you.

Now if you are able to create an experience such as these on a weekly basis your store would be the talk of the town.

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